$100 in 1948 is worth $651 in 1996,
because prices increased 551.0% over that period, an average of
3.98% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$651
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
551.0%
Average inflation rate
3.98% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$651
Price difference ($100 base)
$551
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1948 → 1996
$651
$100 in 1996 → 1948
$15.36
What happened to prices between 1948 and 1996
Between 1948 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 551.0%, which works out to an average of
3.98% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.15 buys in 1996: the 1948 dollar
lost 84.6% of its purchasing power over
these 48 years.
Consumer prices rose 8.1% in 1948, down slightly from 1947’s
14.4% but still the second straight year of sharp postwar inflation now
that wartime price controls were fully gone. Congress moved to stabilize a
different economy that April, passing the Economic Cooperation Act to fund
the plan Secretary of State George Marshall had proposed the year before:
more than $13 billion over four years to rebuild Western Europe and counter
Soviet influence. The Cold War turned tense closer to the plan’s target
that June, when Soviet forces cut off road and rail access to the
Western-controlled sectors of Berlin. American and British aircraft
responded almost immediately with an airlift of food, fuel, and supplies
that would keep the city running for nearly a year. Domestic politics
produced its own upset that November: nearly every poll and pundit had
predicted a Republican win, but Harry Truman defeated New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, handing the Chicago Tribune its famously wrong “Dewey Defeats
Truman” headline. Consumer prices finished the year 143.4% above their
1913 level and 40.9% above 1929’s
pre-Depression peak. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 40 cents an hour.
Every 1948 amount converts to 1996 at the same ratio, 6.51: $1,000 becomes
$6,510, and $10,000 becomes $65,104.
Amount in 1948
Value in 1996
$1.00
$6.51
$5.00
$32.55
$10.00
$65.10
$20.00
$130
$50.00
$326
$100
$651
$500
$3,255
$1,000
$6,510
$5,000
$32,552
$10,000
$65,104
$100,000
$651,037
$1,000,000
$6,510,373
Inflation by spending category, 1948–1996
Between 1948 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 1484.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 209.9%, against 551.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.98%
$651
Medical care
5.93%
$1,585
Transportation
4.12%
$694
Food
3.76%
$587
Apparel
2.38%
$310
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1948: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1948 to 1996
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (0.00% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1948–1996 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1948, at end
1948–1950
0.00%
0.0%
$100
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$123
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$161
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$342
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$542
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$651
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $173 by
1972, on its way to $651 in 1996; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and prices fell 1.2% in 1949, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $651; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 1996: $100 is worth $651 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1996/